Canadian Coast Guard Rams Sea Shepherd Ship, Seal Hunt

[Annces]

Tension mounts on East Coast over seal hunt


The Canadian Press

HALIFAX -- A coast guard icebreaker and a ship owned by a militant conservation group have collided in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as tension mounts over the annual seal hunt off Canada's East Coast.


A spokesman for the federal Fisheries Department says the icebreaker was "grazed'' twice by the Farley Mowat, owned by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.


But the conservation group says its ship was rammed twice Sunday by the icebreaker Des Groseilliers.


Department spokesman Phil Jenkins called the allegation that the Farley Mowat was rammed "absolutely false.''


The crew aboard the Farley Mowat say they were told by the coast guard not to approach the area where seals were being slaughtered on the third day of the hunt.


The conservation group says the coast guard ship rammed its vessel twice when the Farley Mowat did not comply.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080331/sealing_ship_080331/20080331?hub=Canada

pictures - Sea Shepherd

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_080330_2.html

[Bonobo]

1. Imagine that! How dare someone ram the rammers!

Glad Watson survived the "assassination attempt"!

What an ass! :rofl:

"At grace with the sea". :rofl:

[flvegan]

2. Rammed twice.

If the Farley Mowat had "grazed" the CCGS ship, they (the CCG) would have used that as an excuse to arrest the ship and detain the activists.

Sounds like they're getting frustrated. Maybe if the Coast Guard spent more time watching the sealers, there wouldn't already be 3 (likely 4) dead.

[Annces]

3. I am glad Canadian media is covering this

I didn't think I would find the story in the news.

There is going to be a lot of bad blood between the sealers and the Coast Guard from that accident.

[flvegan]

5. And aside from some minor damage,

all that incident did was give Sea Shepherd a lot of media attention, and just a little more ammo.

[ThomWV]

4. Those are extremely serious charges in maritime law

For the Captain of a vessel to ram another intentionally would be a very serious matter and if charges were brought by either side its not at all likely that the Captain of either vessel would remain licensed after the inquiry. This is serious stuff, the safety of life at sea, and the treaties that cover it and the national laws that enforce them are not the sort of thing that persons operating boats take lightly.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

6. Im no sailor

My time on a boat was usually tugs on the nice defrosted great lakes but...

Wouldnt an ice breaker 'ramming' another ship not once but twice put it to the bottom?

[Annces]

7. Well I don't know the technical jargon

There is damage to the "plates". It will have to be repaired. I don't know more than that.

[EnviroBat]

8. They could kill every seal hunter in existence for all I care.